Chazar >> Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, my linux box is broken at the moment and I haven't had the compunction to fix it. I assume that the standard CRLF characters--0d0a, inserted (e.g. by a hex editor) would solve the problem. I'll check it out, I just figured that the parser stopped reading when it hit a newline character or a quote.
Quantum >> I'll do a little more number crunching and see if I can pick a fair, but higher cost for the Sha'ir.

Sandman >> The Hashishim were an Islamic group--most of the Persia mod is based on Zoroastrian Iran which is pre-Islamic. The exception is, of course, the Sha'ir which is an Islamic derivation. I didn't feel that, with their other bonuses in mind, they needed either a spy or an assassin. They have a scout and stealth units The Fravartin and his Spectres are stealth units.

I was going to do a fictional name for them, but my knowledge of Sanskrit (particularly the Avesta dialect) is confined to English translations thereof. (any Sanskrit majors out there?)

The reason I gave the Immortals shortbows is because they often carried them--[Digression]I don't know what the Sanskrit word that the Persians used to indicate the "Immortals"--Immortals is a derivation of what the Greeks called them. Satapatish is the correct word for their lieutenants though. I'd prefer to use the Sanskrit word, but I haven't seen it used.

My brother, "BigDaddy" here, noted that the price of the Scythian Archer was 15g, 10r, and thought it was quite high considering most archers are less than 10 bucks. I based the unit costs on a weighted deviation from the mean (I have attached my work spreadsheet for all interested to peruse). There is a good chance that they're too expensive, however, I'm not really an expert on cost analysis.

I suppose I forgot to give the cavalry hoof Attacks . They're pretty good without, but in keeping with the spirit of the game, they should.

I should've done this in the first post, but here are a few notes about the units in the mod for those of you not interested in reading the coding:

1. The Magus, Mobed, and Sha'ir have Elemental randoms, not full randoms.

2. The Mobed's random picks are linked (e.g. he will get 2F, 2A, 2W, or 2E but never a combination).

3. The national spell, Sanguine Heritage, takes 3 Astral and 3 Death to cast -- none of the national mages can cast it, so make a pretender that can or ignore the spell. The spell summons a Fravartin who, in turn, gathers Spectres. These are the stealth units of Persia.

4. Many of the units transform into others when they die.

Urvaram Aabi lose the abilities of Heal and Supply +20 among other things. They become immortal and gain several other personal abilities making them "better" as singular units but not nearly as good as a support unit.

Immortals transform into Aabi--their weapons are phantasmal and they lose their strength. They gain some abilities of the non-corporeal undead, however.

Satapatish also transform into Aabi, but they get a life drain attack instead of a phantasmal one.

The cavalry units will transform into similarly equipped infantry units upon their death--this is to simulate the death of the horse rather than the rider. I would have liked to make a probability of either complete death or dismount, but the game does not allow such things.

5. The priest/mages have special ranged or melee (Barshnuum) fire attacks. Zarathustra's (hero) attack is a Divine Armament which is supposed to cause 3x damage to demons and undead.

6. The Scythed Chariot is a very powerful commander that is probably best used as a stand-alone rather than a leader like the TC S&A Noble. It has a significant armament and is a size 5 trampler. It's resource cost of 59 is quite expensive, though.

9. All of the Persian forces have wasteland survival (a very valuable trait).

10. The rings possessed by the Magi are shields.

11. Typically, shield-wearing units do not have bows. However, it is possible to wield a bow while using a small shield. The traditional Persion Gerron is made out of wicker and is very light. It provides no protection, but does add defense. It's primary use (historically) was to deflect incoming arrows.

12. The basic gem income for Persia is 3F, 1N, 1S.

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"Let your plans be dark and as impenetratable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt." -- Sun Tzu

Verjigorm, the deviation method is good, but you need to take out the outliers. . . The outliers are the units that nations recieve on the cheap. If you find the deviations for all of the units you used, they'll be the ones with the highest deviation from the mean. Like the Pythium thuerg, who is extra cheap. Remove these, and refigure your deviation. Use this new deviation as a guideline. . .

My understanding of unit costs is that a basic human soldier costs 10 gold, and has 10 in nearly all their stats. Each +1 to a stat adds +1 to the gold cost, whilst any national bonuses (like Marignon's +1 morale) are free. The Ulmish Guardian has +4 morale, +2 attack, +2 hitpoints and +2 strength over a normal Ulmish soldier, and consequently costs 20 gold. Some units exceed or fall short of this system, of course. 'Hoplite' units (Arco, Machaka and Pangaea) have excellent stats for their gold cost, in particular.

With this system in mind, the cost of the Medean infantry should be 15 gold, and the Persian infantry 16 gold (I'm ignoring their +1 precision) This can be reduced further if they are considered to have a national bonus to their morale, as their description suggests.